Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to annex the Jordan Valley, announced one week before Israel's election re-do, is an act of desperation by an embattled prime minister looking to shore up his right-wing base. Yet without the acquiescence of his friend in the White House, President Donald Trump, and the virtual silence of his centrist rivals on the territorial issue, Netanyahu would not be upping the ante in this way—after declining to make such plans during his 13 years in power.